Essay 1

How closely does the contemporary Web meet the technological and philosophical visions of one of the following: the team behind ARPANET, Ted Nelson, Tim Berners-Lee? Chosen topic: Tim Berners-Lee

I believe that the contemporary Web meets the technological vision completely and only partly meets the philosophical vision of Tim Berners-Lee. When the web was first invented, technology at the time did not allow for things such as full true high definition colour images and videos to be streamed across the web, it only could handle text files and 16 colour or at most 256 colour images. His vision was so that the world could share a wealth of knowledge across the web in multi-mediums. Fortunately, as technology progressed and popularity of the web became widespread, the world today does share knowledge with each other in many forms, however the emergence of viruses, censorship, fraud and cybercrime limit Berners-Lees philosophical vision that he had for his creation.

Tim Berners-Lee is heralded as the father of the World Wide Web and one of the top 100 people of the 20th century for his inventions and solutions leading to the modern Web. He set the standard for the protocols (such as HTTP) and languages (such as HTML) which are used in todays web.

Technologically and historically, W3 or the World Wide Web was born at CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research in the early 1990s. Tim Berners-Lee proposed the idea to connect hypertext with the Internet and personal computers so that CERN physicists could share and access the same computer stored information across a network. Since hypertext and TCP/IP and domain names had already been created, Tim Berners-Lee explained,

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"I just had to take the hypertext idea and connect it to the Transmission Control Protocol and domain name system ideas and ta-da! the World Wide Web." (World Wide Web Consortium, W3C) Berners-Lee and his team had to persuade people to use his invention of HTTP, URLs and HTML so that the web would work efficiently and smoothly and packets of information would be sent correctly and in the right order. The following definitions explain what Berners-Lee had invented and put in collaboration with the already formed Internet.

HTTP refers to Hypertext Transfer Protocol, HTTP is a protocol for transferring information with the efficiency necessary for making hypertext jumps. The data transferred may be plain text, hypertext, images or anything else. (Tim Berners-Lee et al, 1994:794) URL refers to Universal Resource Locators. These are commonly known as web addresses as a URL is what you type into a web client to access a website and its information at the address or URL you provided.

HTML refers to Hypertext Markup Language, HTML forms can be opened in any modern web browser and may contain many elements known in most graphical user interfaces. These include single-line text fields, multi-line text boxes with scrollbars, list boxes, combo boxes (ie, a text box associated with a pick list), checkboxes and radio buttons. The user can change the setting of checkboxes, radio buttons, and pick lists, and edit or insert text in the textboxes. The revisions can then be returned over the Internet to the source database. (2000:518, Gregor Hagedorn and Gerhard Rambold) On the modern World Wide Web, we still use all of these conventions. When we type in the web address, also known as a URL, we start with typing HTTP before. When we form websites, the code underlying the website is in HTML, sometimes, at the end of a web address, we type .html For example, when buying Berners-Lees book Weaving the Web online I get directed via hyperlinks to go to a website labelled so:

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http://www.play.com/Books/Books/4-/465017/Weaving-the-Web/Product.html

Berners-Lee stated his philosophical vision for his brain-child as this: The web will be, hopefully, will be something which is sunk into the background as an assumption. Now, if as technologists develop, we've done our job well, the web will be this universal medium, which will be very, very flexible. It won't, itself, have any preconceived notions about what's built on top. (Tim Berners-Lee, August 2005, BBC) The web now is an assumption that computers have to connect to. However, Berners-Lee could have created his philosophical nightmare as his invention is being misused. Social networking is fast becoming the way of communication opposed to keeping a hardcopy address book; however is there a limit as to how much personal information is too much for the world to see? It was rumoured and found true that a Cambridge university admissions tutor would check a candidates social profile via face book to decide their success, An Oxford academic said: "I think this is really intrusive and most unreasonable." Another said: "It would certainly be unacceptable in the case of admissions, where we strive to consider as comparable a data set for all candidates as possible." But a third said: "It's fair to check up on applicants in this way. Facebook is public domain material." (The Guardian Online) Another issue with the Web today is fraud, linked to identity theft on social networking sites, and internet security. Viruses can be sent via emails or attached to files that people download and what we do online can be monitored by governing bodies. Tim Berners-Lee wanted the web to be a universal virtual space and with that comes freedom of speech in the online community. A specific example of his vision being betrayed is in the case of China. Shi Tao, a Chinese journalist was sent down for 10 years in prison for sending a peaceful email to an American website discussing a Communist partys directive about the Beijing Olympics. Yahoo then divulged his account information to the Chinese government, infringing on international human rights acts. Even more companies have given into
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Chinese censorship rules, Google has released a self-censoring search engine especially for China; another case is Microsoft creating a web portal that blocks the use of words such as freedom in Chinese blogs. According to Irene Khan, Amnesty Internationals Secretary General, "Whether succumbing to demands from Chinese officials or anticipating government concerns, companies that impose restrictions that infringe on human rights are being extremely short-sighted. The agreements the industry enters into with the Chinese government, whether tacit or written, go against the IT industrys claim that it promotes the right to freedom of information of all people, at all times, everywhere. (Amnesty.org) This clearly does not reflect Berners-Lees vision. It is putting up international borders on the Web and certain countries can no longer share information with one another without putting a strain on relations between them. There should not be a tyrannical rule over something that should be liberal and free to the world.

In conclusion, the contemporary Web has brought about cultural and political issues that are troubling the world over. However technologically, the contemporary web is now an application that a computer can access and it is multi-purpose, exceeding even BernersLees vision of simply just sharing information all over the world. It could even be considered as the seed of the digital revolution for not only do we share textual information on it, we can use it to enjoy creative mediums such as sound and video and live streaming with the installation of web cameras or webcams. We can also use it as a platform for shopping, for publishing journals and diaries (now known as blogging), for communication, even to have a virtual life! Berners-Lee has fulfilled his technological vision as millions of people all over the world do not simply buy a computer for its simple software; they buy computers and now even mobile phones for access to the ever expanding World Wide Web. Word Count: 1,252

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Bibliography/References: Gregor Hadedom and Gerhard Rambold (2000) A Method to Establish and Revise Descriptive Data Sets over the Internet Taxon: Vol. 49, No.3, International Association for Plant Taxonomy, IAPT, page 518 (Accessed through Christ Church e-library 24th November 2009) Irene Khan, January 2006 China: Internet companies assist censorship, Amnesty International. Available at: http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/ASA17/002/2006/en/fee82e9d-d46411dd-8743-d305bea2b2c7/asa170022006en.html (Accessed: 29th November 2009) Jessica Shepherd and David Shariatmadari, (2008) Would-be students checked on facebook., The Guardian. Available at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/jan/11/accesstouniversity.highereducation (Accessed: 28th November 2009) Mark Lawson, August 2005, Berners-Lee on the read/write web, BBC. Available at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4132752.stm (Accessed: 24th November 2009) Tim Berners-Lee, "Answers for Young People", World Wide Web Consortium. Available at: http://www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee/Kids.html (Accessed: 24th November 2009) Tim Berners-Lee et al. (2003) The World-Wide Web in the New Media Reader edited by Noah Wardrip-Fruin, Nick Monfort, Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press.

Charlotte Dobson